[oi-dev] [OpenIndiana-discuss] [discuss] zpool create on specified GPT partition

[Andreas Wacknitz]

Am 16.08.25 um 11:21 schrieb Atiq Rahman:
> Hello Stephan,
> > now i just swap the boot discs. Its far easier.... additional boot 
> disc (128-512 gb?)
>
>
> Are you using them on a desktop PC or on a server setup? For what 
> purposes do you use OI?
>
I am not Stephan but will nevertheless try to explain my setup.
I see OpenIndiana as a workstation platform that can also be used as a 
server platform.
(OmniOS is in my eyes the exact opposite: it's a server platform that 
can also be used as a workstation one.)
Of course many things are still missing in OI due to lack of resources,
some of them most probably will never appear on it because they are 
either far too complex (eg. signal, visual studio code) or closed source 
(eg. whatsapp).

I use OI as my secondary operating system while macos is my first. This 
is due to the fact that I want or need to use some software that is not 
available on OI (eg. sophisticated photo editing, tax declaration, video 
conferecing, ...). Of course I use OI on my own home server, too.

I have started to use mixed OS installations on single disks in the far 
past and stopped that when disks became affordable. The following time I 
have been using the multiple disk approach that Stephan mentioned. 
Partly I am still using that but I also have some old workstations (eg. 
Fujitsu W530) which are really cheap nowadays.
This is my preferred approach today because I can install any OS I want 
to experiment with on them without hesitation.
Usually all of them run OI, though. That's because I need test platforms 
for fundamental changes which have many implications on other packages. 
But I only need this because I am one of the OI maintainers.

I already tried to explain in a previous reply why OI is my secondary 
OS. Everything else I tried (and I tried a lot) has drawbacks that make 
me prefer OI over them. One important reason is that as a maintainer I 
can change/influence what and how OI provides software easily. It is 
quite easy to become an OI maintainer (I know this for sure as I am in a 
position to add maintainers); I think it's almost as easy as becoming a 
maintainer of your own operating system.

Furthermore, OI as a successor of OpenSolaris, has some mostly hidden 
features that can only be found by intensive use of OI. The typical 
distro hopper who always seeks for a better environment spending his/her 
time installing/collecting operating systems (or simply Linux 
distributions) won't be able to find because a couple of minutes is not 
enough to find and understand them.

Andreas

>
> Cheers!
>
> Atiq
>
>
>
> On Sat, Aug 16, 2025 at 1:31 AM Stephan Althaus via oi-dev 
> <oi-dev at openindiana.org> wrote:
>
>     On 8/16/25 07:50, Atiq Rahman wrote:
>>     > FreeBSD has switched around the terms “slice” and “partition”.
>>     They are using “slice" for fdisk/mbr case and “partition” for
>>     everything else.
>>     Thank you for sharing the fun fact!
>>
>     Hi all!
>
>     Just to share my humble opinion..
>
>     Partitioning is a point where i had my 'problems', too. These
>     slices never really burnt in my mind, ('slice 2 is whole disc' -
>     why no. 2??)
>
>     Especially for new users without solarish bachground a tool that
>     is 'like fdisk' would be handy - i really don't like format and
>     fdisk cause i don't really know what they do :-/
>
>     On OI we have "parted", "gdisk" and "cgdisk" which are sort of
>     this, for 'modern' GPT disc labels.
>     That's really great. With UEFI working now flawlessly i don't need
>     anything else anymore.
>
>     For me, i now use UFEI boot using whoe disc, in one case i did
>     pre-partinioning to create a pool that is smaller than whole disc
>     for later mirroing..,
>      and zfs pools with 'whole disc' devices.
>
>
>     ~10 years ago i battled with dual boot setups, now i just swap the
>     boot discs. Its far easier.
>     These some € more for additional boot disc (128-512 gb?) really
>     free spare time to create something more productive.
>
>
>     Just my 2 cents,
>
>     Stephan
>
>
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